


i had never seen the stars (before i looked into your eyes)

by mementheomori



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Camping, Gavin is an astronomy nerd, Gay Disaster Gavin Reed, M/M, Nines has never seen the stars due to light pollution, Stargazing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, no beta we die like men, rk900 is named Richard, there's still lots of banter, they've worked together for a while and actually get along (somewhat)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23236972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mementheomori/pseuds/mementheomori
Summary: In which Gavin finds out Nines has never seen a clear night sky before and immediately books a camping trip for the two of them.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	i had never seen the stars (before i looked into your eyes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation over an old astronomy book leads to a spontaneous weekend in the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it. I posted it.  
> There was some anxiety involved because I wasn't (and still am not) sure about the quality of this fic, but if I hadn't posted it now, I know I wouldn't have done so at all.  
> Mind you that this is only the first version and I'll likely go back and edit it later.  
> Thanks for some cool people on Discord for the encouragement. You guys know who you are. I appreciate you.

For a few moments, Gavin couldn't breathe. Wheezing and coughing, he tried to get the coffee out of his airpipe. Unsuccessfully, mind you, until he felt Richard's hand patting his back.

"I apologise, Detective. I didn't think my confession would elicit such a response. Perhaps I miscalculated your thin-skinnedness." Wow. The plastic prick probably thought he was real fucking smart for coming up with that roast all by himself.

The glare Richard earned in response was only half-hearted on account of the fact that Gavin was still hunched forward, recovering from a sudden coughing fit. "I'm not fucking thin-skinned. I just can't imagine … fucking hell. You've never seen the stars before?"

"That's what I just told you. I haven't yet had the pleasure of seeing stars with the naked eye before. I was produced and programmed in Detroit and have not left the city since," he explained, hands behind back, looking like the biggest smartass on the planet. Asshole. "I'm sure you're aware of light pollution and the effect it has on the clarity of the night sky."

Gavin groaned. "Oh, trust me, I know. But I can't imagine-- fuck, don't you miss it?"

"I'm afraid I can't miss something I have never known, Detective. Not to mention that if I desire looking at stars for a while, I can simply look up pictures online. But if you're inquiring whether I'm interested in seeing the firmament in all its glory, I certainly am. Unfortunately, a good opportunity has yet to arise." Richard tilted his head to the side ever so slightly. "Though you didn't answer my earlier question. Why do you enjoy stargazing? You don't strike me as the type. Does it have a personal meaning to you?"

Oh, it did.

_Protected. Loved._

_Home._

_Mother._

Gavin scoffed. "None of your fuckin' business." He wouldn't understand. The was no way. He was an android and far from having made the same experiences as Gavin. Hadn't grown up under the starlit tent that was the night sky, hadn't felt the flickering warmth of a campfire, hadn't stayed up a little longer than appropriate and come up with his own constellations, connecting dot after dot until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

And he likely never would. Which was actually kind of a shame.

"In that case, I apologise for prying. Now, if you'll excuse me. There's work I need to attend to. Have a pleasant lunch." Richard took one of those ridiculous little bows like he always did when exiting a conversation and stalked out of the break room towards his desk.

Gavin watched him, eyes flickering back and forth between the android and the old astronomy guide from his childhood that had started this conversation in the first place, and for the first time, he felt some sort of compassion for Richard. Sure, his own childhood had been shit, in large parts. But those camping trips, those warm summer nights … there were days when he was certain they made it worth the pain.

Sometimes, during some of the bad nights, the ones where Gavin felt his chest tighten and waves of dark thoughts came crashing over him time and time again, where he wanted nothing more than to get in his car and drive, drive until he could see the stars again, nights when he wondered what it would be like to burn out amongst them, become part of their seemingly everlasting glow, the memories he had were all that kept him afloat.

It was almost sad, really, that Richard didn't have those types of memories. Warm and fuzzy and untainted by the weariness and apathy of the world around them.

And that got Gavin thinking. Maybe, just maybe, that was what he had been missing. Never once had he seen Richard do anything _just because he wanted to._ He was all work and no play, even a good seven months after the revolution.

He never let himself do anything unrelated to work. Unlike Connor who -- as much as it pained him to admit it -- was doing a fairly good job at learning to be human. For fuck's sake, the man had an apartment and a dog and a goddamn _relationship._ He made smalltalk with his coworkers and went out on movie nights and took days off to go on trips. That was more than Gavin could say about himself. He couldn't even remember the last time he had taken two consecutive days off, not to mention gone on a fucking trip.

… wait a fucking minute.

His hands had pretty much automatically pulled his phone from his pocket and looked up "barnacle falls campsite". Which was still an objectively awful name for a campsite because not only had Gavin never even heard the word "barnacle" uttered anywhere near that place but you also had to be off the goddamn rails insane to name a camp after a marine crustacean when you were miles away from the sea.

In the end though, it didn't look like the terrible name was too damaging to the place. From his few minutes of research, Gavin gathered that it still existed in all its glory and he genuinely had to stop himself from performing a small victory dance right there in the precinct. He'd _known._ He'd known that there would be a day when he would come back to that place.

He jumped up from where he sat and bolted over to Chris's desk, smiling like a kid on Christmas. "Oi, you have some camping stuff lying around, right? Can I borrow some of it?"

The look of complete and utter confusion he got in response almost made him even more excited. "I mean, yeah," Chris replied, turning away from the terminal and looking at the unnaturally happy spark in Gavin's eyes that seemed to border in mania. "It's pretty old though, I can't guarantee everything's still in working order. For how long do you need it?"

"Don't worry, it's just for a weekend. Thanks man, I owe you." Gavin patted his shoulder in that awful, overly friendly way, before rushing over to Richard's desk instead.

The grin on his face only grew wider. Wide enough for his cheeks to seriously start hurting, in fact. "Richard! Toaster!" He called to him. "How about you use your smart little computer brain to answer me a very simple question? How high would our chances of success be if we were to ask Fowler to take the next weekend off?"

* * *

Even with Chris's generosity, the trip turned out to be more expensive than Gavin had originally planned. Who would have thought that being shoved into a storage unit for years didn't really do much to preserve his old camping equipment? So he had to buy new stuff. Quite a lot of it, in fact.

Shit, the things he did for that damn android. Telling himself that he was only using this as an excuse to go revisit his favorite place from childhood didn't work either. He was self-aware enough to know that was a lie, but not self-aware enough to figure out what his _actual_ reasoning for doing this was.

"Detective, why did you buy two sleeping bags?"

"Did you think I was just going to leave you outside the tent? _Please."_ Gavin scoffed as if that question was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. It wasn't; Nines kind of had a point, but there was no way he would admit that. "You need the full experience. Trailer and campfire and sleeping in a tent, the whole shebang."

A tiny crease appeared on Nines' forehead — as it usually did when he was frowning — while he eyed the equipment cluttering the trunk of the car. "Detective, I don't believe that going into stasis in a sleeping bag is going to affect my ability to see the stars at night. Don't you think that—"

"Shut up and just trust me with this. You need to experience _all of this_ . This isn't just about stargazing, it's about you finally letting yourself go. Time to live a little, you know." Gavin lightly punched his shoulder before closing the trunk. "So while we're at the campsite, you'll stop with all that detective-bullshit and call me Gavin and Gavin _only._ Got it?"

Richard only nodded, but when Gavin walked to the driver's side of the car and glanced back at him for a moment, he caught him mouthing his name, almost as though he was testing out how it felt on his tongue. The gesture was so strangely human that it made his heart surge with an emotion he was afraid of putting a name on.

"Get in loser, we're going camping!" He called out in a weak attempt to take his own attention off the android's lips, but the only response he got was a confused look and an (admittedly sort of cute) tilt of Richard's head. With an exasperated sigh, he let himself fall into the driver's seat. "We're gonna work on your understanding of pop culture references next, don't worry."

"Well, I would hope so. I don't understand half the references Lieutenant Anderson keeps making and it's quite irritating." Nines got in the car after him, shaking his head in disapproval. "Sometimes I think you're all speaking an entirely different language that I'm completely unable to comprehend."

Gavin started up the car with a laugh. "Trust me, you're not the only one who feels that way."

The ride itself was largely uneventful. Purely for nostalgic reasons, a Best of: The Beach Boys CD way playing in the background. While Gavin's fingers drummed against the steering wheel to the rhythm of "Barbara Ann", Nines was staring out the window, completely transfixed by the landscape passing by outside the car.

"Detecti— Gavin. Apologies. May I ask you personal question? Do you enjoy this kind of music?" He eventually spoke up, only briefly looking away from the window.

Gavin chuckled. "Well, yes and no. My mother was a big fan of The Beach Boys. I used to hate them when I was younger, but I guess now they've grown on me. Their music makes me all nostalgic, you know?"

"I suppose that is somewhat logical."

"Is it?" He raised his eyebrows, throwing the android a quick glance. "I usually don't think about how logical my feelings about things are. They just kind of exist. And I let them, most of the time. And that's that."

"It does seem to be that way for most humans," Nines mumbled and Gavin wasn't sure if his co-detective was talking to himself or not. "Feelings aren't always based in rationality. Which, I suppose, is not always bad. Perhaps making good decisions is simply the art of figuring out when to rely on logic and when to rely on instinct."

Gavin laughed. "Whoa there, Socrates. Save some of that for when we're sitting at the campfire and I've had at least two beers. There's no way I can stand all this philosophy when I'm sober."

"Understandable. Sometimes, I'm not sure I can, either." Gavin could have sworn there was a smile on Nines' face, but before he could throw him a second glance to make sure, he had to pull off the highway and onto the road leading through the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this chapter, consider giving me a kudos. I also love getting comments and will absolutely make an effort to respond to every single one.  
> If you want to get in touch with me or request a drabble, the easiest way to do so is via my Tumblr, detroitsdumbestdeviant.


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